Viral marketing and social media are two phenomenons that we extensively talk about utilizing in class. The prospect of having these two mediums work together to potentially reach thousands, even millions, of people fast by just sending out one viral ad has began has been used to market everything from Doritos to movies. So it should come to no surprise that politicians also try to utilize this revolutionary combination to reach potential voters. So when Rick Perry's latest ad went viral and reached more than 3 million views in less than 5 days you would think he would be ecstatic. However, in this case viral media may have come back to bite him. His latest ad seems honest enough, Perry is shown walking through what seems like a wooded area wear a jacket to seem like a down to earth guy. However, when he utters the phrase:
"I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school."
It's not hard to see why things could go very bad, very fast. On YouTube, Perry's ad has only 13,000 likes and over 500,000 dislikes.Worst of all, Perry's ad has become the launching ad for several scathing parodies that have become just as viral. Using the same background and format as Perry's ad these parodies range from a fake Perry describing his more explicit reason for disapproving of homosexuals (160,000), an atheist slamming Rick Perry running on a Christian platform (1,500,000 views), and even Jesus himself refuting any connection to Rick Perry (150,000 views). So the question remains: What the hell was Perry thinking? With all the advisors are individuals on his staff, wouldn't you think one person would step up and say, "Hey Rick, you know this could make a lot of people mad and ruin everything you worked for right?" Ask Howard Dean. All it took was the simple exclamation "BYAAAH" during an event to go from top of the back to bottom of the polls thanks to Dave Chappelle turning it into a skit on his show. So will this ruin Rick Perry's entire campaign? My guess is yes, but only time will tell.
Social media (including YouTube) definitely has its place in marketing and I suppose politics. While social media vehicles can be a great way to reach the masses (and for the most part inexpensive), it can certainly backfire. As we'
ReplyDeleteve also discussed in class: once you've put something out there...it's there. Forever. I personally believe social media (and its vehicles) are mostly here to stay. You have to be prepared for the back-lash and for the opposing views if you're going to put yourself out there (on social media).
I saw this ad last night and was horrified. I though Rick Perry wanted to be elected not crucified. His comments are so ignorant. Did he really not think he was going to offend huge numbers of people? Or was this in fact, a publicity stunt to get people talking about him? Does he believe all attention is good, even if it is bad? Rick Perry is entitled to his opinion. At the same time, it seems like an interesting strategy to infuriate people. How will this help get him elected? Isn't that his ultimate goal, or does he simply want to be controversial?
ReplyDeleteI saw this ad two days ago and my chin hit the floor. It has been found on Youtube and posted and re-posted on Facebook pages of at least half of my friends. The comments on the Facebook postings are not in his favor. People can not believe that he would disrespect veterans, no matter what their sexual preference is, while he is sitting at home safe and sound enjoying time with his family, and they don't have that option. I also agree that his advisers should have said something to them and maybe they did and he chose to run the ad anyway. I am very curious to see how it will play out.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the ad run I did not anticipate the controversy that took place. I thought what he said about the military was inappropriate but has this not been an ongoing topic? Why is it so shocking to hear this jargon from a politician? How many people who disagree with his statements are registered voters? What would happen if he was elected then said that? What does Barney Frank think?
ReplyDeleteRick Perry not only managed to directly offend the homosexual community and members of the military, he also managed to offend non Christians and possibly members of the educational system. If he would have endorsed the kicking of dogs, he may have got everyone he missed. He obviously didn’t put much thought into his message. Still, I don’t believe the goal of political ads is the same as ads used for marketing products and services. Sales people want to appeal to as much of the target audience as possible with ads while politicians want to polarize groups within the parties. Politicians don’t need to please everyone they need to please just enough to get elected.
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